Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a 1982 American film with both science fiction and horror elements that is the third installment in the popular Halloween franchise. It is the only film in the Halloween franchise that does not feature the fictional characters Michael Myers, Laurie Strode, or Samuel Loomis and it also does not directly include story elements from Halloween I or II. It is the first film to be directed and written by Tommy Lee Wallace. John Carpenter and Debra Hill, the creators of Halloween, returned as producers. The film stars Tom Atkins as Dr. Dan Challis, Stacey Nelkin as Ellie Grimbridge, and Dan O'Herlihy as Conal Cochran. The story focuses on an investigation by Challis and Grimbridge into the activities of Cochran, the mysterious owner of the Silver Shamrock Novelties company, in the week approaching Halloween night. Plot On Saturday, October 23, a shop owner name Harry Grimbridge (Al Berry) is chased by mysterious figures wearing business suits. He collapses at a gas station clutching a Silver Shamrock jack-o'-lantern mask and is driven to the hospital by the station attendant (Essex Smith) all the while ranting, "They're going to kill us. They're going to kill us all." Grimbridge is placed in the care of Dr. Dan Challis. Another man in a suit enters Grimbridge's hospital room and kills him, then goes to his car and kills himself through self-immolation. Dr. Challis and Grimbridge's daughter, Ellie, investigate the incident leading them to the small town of Santa Mira, California, home of the Silver Shamrock Novelties factory. Hotel manager Rafferty (Michael Currie) reveals the source of the town's prosperity is Irishman Conal Cochran and his factory. Challis learns that Ellie's father stayed at the same hotel. Other hotel guests are shop owners Marge Guttman (Garn Stephens) and Buddy Kupfer (Ralph Strait), Buddy's wife Betty (Jadeen Barbor) and their son Little Buddy (Bradley Schacter). All have business at the factory and eventually meet gruesome ends through the Silver Shamrock masks and the men in suits. A day after arriving in Santa Mira, Challis and Ellie tour the factory with the Kupfers and are alarmed to discover Grimbridge's car there, guarded by more men dressed in suits. They return to the hotel but cannot contact anyone outside the town. Ellie is kidnapped by the men in suits. Challis breaks into the factory to find her and discovers that the men in suits are androids created by Cochran. Challis is captured by the androids and Cochran reveals his plan to kill children on Halloween night. The Silver Shamrock trademark on the masks contains a computer chip containing a fragment of Stonehenge. When the Silver Shamrock TV special airs on Halloween night, the chip will activate, killing the wearer and unleashing a lethal swarm of insects and snakes, killing those around the wearer. Cochran explains his plan to resurrect macabre aspects of the Gaelic festival Samhain, which he connects to witchcraft. Challis escapes and rescues Ellie. They destroy the factory, killing Cochran and his team of scientists, then flee the town. While driving away, Challis is attacked by "Ellie", causing him to crash his car. He finds that she was an android copy and destroys it in a brief struggle. On foot, Challis returns to the filling station where Ellie's father had come to eight days earlier and contacts the television stations, convincing all but one to remove the commercial. Challis screams into the telephone to stop the commercial as the film abruptly ends. Category:Halloween Movies Category:Horror Movies